Mondure farmer Wayne Robert Green found guilty of rape
A Qld farmer and father of three took advantage of a broke backpacker’s desire to stay in Australia on a visa causing the victim significant trauma and a ‘fear of men’.
South Burnett
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A South Burnett farmer has been jailed for more than three years after a jury found him guilty of rape following days of shocking allegations and victim testimony.
After deliberating for less than two hours, a jury of seven men and five women in the Kingaroy District Court found Mondure farmer Wayne Robert Green guilty of one charge of procuring a sexual act by intimidation, not guilty of assault and guilty of rape in a trial that lasted three days.
The 53-year-old had pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
He was sentenced shortly after the jury reached its verdict.
Judge Glen Cash said Green, a father of three, was “aware of her circumstances” that the victim had no money and a desire to stay in Australia on her visa.
“You took advantage of a young woman who was in a vulnerable position for your own sexual gratification,” Judge Cash said.
“There was no real consent given by her.”
He said the effect on the victim has been “substantial”.
“It’s caused her relationship problems and a fear of men,” the judge said.
“She’s lost her former self.”
Green was sentenced to three years for procuring a sexual act by intimidation and three years and six months for rape, to be served concurrently.
He was then taken into custody.
‘SHE HAD DREAMS’
Prosecutors allege Mr Green assaulted and raped a UK woman while she worked on his farm to keep her job and working holiday visa over a period of two weeks.
In his closing argument on Thursday, Mr Green’s lawyer Scott Lynch argued the alleged victim was inconsistent in her testimony and her diary entries and comments to others never demonstrated she was “scared” during her time on the farm.
During her opening argument, crown prosecutor Christa Nicola said the woman had come to Australia from the United Kingdom.
“She had dreams to come to Australia on a working visa and having the Aussie experience,” Ms Nicola said.
“This turned into something very different.”
The court heard the alleged victim needed to complete 88 days of farm work to extend her visa and found an ad on Gumtree posted by Mr Green before exchanging numbers and information.
Ms Nicola said the woman flew to Brisbane before travelling to the South Burnett and met Mr Green.
‘SHE WAS WORRIED HE WAS GOING TO RAPE HER’
Ms Nicola said one night after coming home from a local pub with Mr Green sexually assaulted her.
“She didn’t want to, he was bigger than her and dominating,” Ms Nicola said.
Ms Nicola said Mr Green allegedly told her “he would pay her” for oral sex or a “hand-job” and “she could keep her job”.
The court heard the woman only had $4 to her name which was backed up by bank records.
“She was worried he was going to rape her if she didn’t comply,” Ms Nicola said.
The court heard the victim was intoxicated and Mr Green was naked during the conversation.
“She was frozen the whole time during that conversation,” Ms Nicola said.
The court heard Mr Green took the woman by the hand and led her to another room.
“She felt as though she had no choice. He laid her on the sofa, she was naked, he was naked, he was touching himself … at some point she had his penis in his mouth,” Ms Nicola said.
“He said the words ‘suck my c--k you whore’ and he was aggressive and pushing her head down.”
Ms Nicola said, in a separate incident, Mr Green “touched her breasts without her consent,” while she was in a truck on a hay run with Mr Green and another male farm worker.
In an email read out to the court written by the alleged victim described an instance when she was in a truck during a hay run with Mr Green and another farm worker.
The email described Mr Green trying to lift up her shirt touch her breast.
“He continuing tried to take out my breast,” the email read.
However the other man who was in the truck testified on Tuesday that he didn’t see Mr Green touch her breast during the trip.
“There was one point where we were all drunk and she was all flashing cars with her breasts,” the witness said.
‘I MIGHT HAVE TOUCHED HER BREASTS’
“I was flirting with her, I might have touched her breasts.”
He also testified that he may have “sucked on her breast” during the trip.
He said he was “very drunk” after drinking a “couple of six-packs” of beer.
“We had sort of been with each other and were friends … we kind of slept together on a couple of occasions,” he said.
When asked if he saw Mr Green do anything untoward the alleged victim, he said no.
“I didn’t see him touch her or anything,” he said.
The witness also stated the woman had told him about performing oral sex on Mr Green.
“Once she mentioned she gave Wayne a blow-job … I didn’t really ask questions about it,” he said.
Another farm worker testified he also didn’t see anything untoward Mr Green and said he never heard her complain about him.
The court heard on another occasion Mr Green called the alleged victim to his room where he was lying naked.
My Lynch told the court the alleged victim testified she chose to give Mr Green oral sex rather than a “hand-job” as she wouldn’t have to look at him and it was “less daunting”.
During the trial Mr Lynch focused on the timeline of events. He said Mr Green left for Longreach for four days the morning after the complainant arrived on the farm stressing it was important as the complainant had a different time line.
Two witnesses testified that he did leave for that amount of time.
Three other witnesses testified, including one from New York via video link, and said the alleged victim confided in them individually where she told them she had been sexually assaulted by Mr Green.
“She said that she was on the farm, she was sexually assaulted by Wayne and that it was oral sex and that was the worst time of her life,” one witness said.
‘HE WOULD WALK AROUND NAKED’
Two witnesses said the victim told them Mr Green had a “no doors policy” in the house and he would walk around naked.
“She noted that he would come in the bathroom when she was showering and he would walk around naked and it made her really uncomfortable,” a witness said.
“She was just scared to be out there alone with him.”
Another witness recounted a conversation with the victim after she had left the farm.
“She had told me that the farmer had made her give him oral sex and she was very upset, I was very upset, I comforted her,” the witness said.
“She had said something along the lines of ‘he made me suck his d--k’.”
“She was obviously very traumatised by the experience,” she said.
In his closing argument Mr Lynch told the jury the alleged victim was inconsistent with her evidence, highlighting some of the dates and details that were inconsistent with other witness testimony during the trial.
He said there were diary entries from the complainant which read she was “chill to the max” and that showed she wasn’t “scared”.
He said there were no details about the alleged events recorded in the diary.
“That would be the very thing that would be kept in a diary.
“There is no forensic evidence … this is beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.